I’m not even going to sugar coat it, I love cupcakes! In fact, my whole family really loves anything with sugar! While I try to avoid as much sugar as possible, since I am addicted to Pepsi anyway, all bets are off when we hit Disney. There is nothing like the fresh, amazing baked goods Disney provides.

When Disney announced that a Sprinkles was opening in Disney Springs, I just knew we had to try it out. While I love to eat, especially while in Disney, I also hate to spend money when we don’t have to. You can imagine my excitement when I read about (and signed up for) Sprinkles Perks. It’s basically a free rewards system that allows you to accumulate points that turn into free goodies. And who doesn’t want free cupcakes, I mean come on!

Since we only get to Disney once or twice a year and we don’t have a Sprinkles here in Pittsburgh, I figured I would be waiting awhile to get anything for free. NOPE! Just for signing up with your email and phone number, your FIRST cupcake is FREE! I mean, like no brainer — if you are planning to hit Disney Springs anytime soon, go sign up!

What makes it even better? My husband and I each signed up seperately, so when we went to Sprinkles, we each got a free cupcake! Since I was already on sugar-overload from being in Disney all week, I split mine with my toddler. They were amazing! I had the sprinkles-covered one and my husband had a chocolate one! Both were so good! And if you don’t want to wait in line, hit up the cupcake ATM if for no other reason than it is the coolest thing ever!

There is nothing more magical than being at Disney World during the holidays. Whether you have kids or not, the magic and sparkle of the season is present everywhere on property. This is by far my favorite time of the year to go, but it is also the busiest!

Poor planning can cause you to miss some amazing things that happen at WDW around the holidays, and best of all, they are FREE! That’s right! No additional money needed! If you’re like me, spending an additional $70 per person for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is simply just not in our budget, but that doesn’t mean we miss out on the fun!

FREE Things to Get You in the Holiday Spirit at Disney

1. Check Out the Different Resorts** – Disney really goes all out with their resort Christmas decorations. Sticking with strict themes and guidelines, all decorations match the overall theme of the resort. Some highlights to see are the Gingerbread house at The Grand Floridian and the Carousel at the Beach Club. Both are made from real gingerbread and chocolate and they are simply amazing! Make sure to buy a treat from the gingerbread house… you can thank me later!

2. Enjoy Holiday Wishes ** – The evening firework show, Wishes, is transformed into a holiday spectacular show, complete with panoramic fireworks! Set to holiday music and a holiday story that still features your Disney favorites, you can enjoy these fireworks from many locations. My personal recommendation is the hub at the Magic Kingdom or somewhere on Main Street, but you can view them from The Grand Floridian, The Polynesian, or the Contemporary as well!

3. Holidays Around the World at Epcot – Enjoying the different countries in Epcot is already on my list of favorite things to do at Disney, but during the holidays, the countries are even more spectacular. In every country, Disney showcases how they do the holidays. Since the majority of workers in each country are natives of that country, the cast members really make the experience amazing!

4. Candle Light Processional – By far my absolute favorite experience during the holidays. Held in the America Pavilion outside of America in Epcot, this beautiful telling of the Christmas Story is always narrated by a celebrity and features the most amazing choir, made up of cast members from around the park that audition for the part! When we saw it last, Gary Sinise did the reading and it was beyond packed! Some areas are reserved for those who choose to the dining package, but it is free to all park guests!

5. Visit the Christmas Shop at Downtown Disney ** – Now it doesn’t have to be the holiday season to enjoy this awesome store, but it is much more magical visiting in December than it is in June! Check out all of the holiday gear that Walt Disney World offers and have the chance to get it personalized right there in the store! Don’t worry, you don’t have to stand there while it’s done. You can pick it up later, or they will deliver it right to your resort with no additional fee! Trim Up The Tree with Disney stuff!

6. Watch the Castle Lighting – Another thing that should not be missed is watching the castle-lighting show at Cinderella’s Castle! This is something they implemented the year we lived down there, and no lie, grown men are known to cry at how beautiful it is! If you are in the Magic Kingdom, make sure to check your time’s guide or the app for what time is happens! You won’t regret it!

7. Check Out the Osborne Family of Lights – Displayed for the last time at Hollywood Studios in 2015 are the Osborne Family of Lights. Millions of lights are strung across the Streets of America and dance to Christmas music blaring through the air! Purchase hot chocolate and cookies, grab a good spot and watch the snow. Feel like you’re being transported up north when it starts snowing and you really get into the Christmas spirit!

So you don’t have to break the bank to enjoy the holiday season if you are a local, or if you are visit the Mouse during this amazing time of year! While these are 7 of the most popular things to do, there are hundreds of holiday happenings around the Disney property during November and December! What are your favorites?

This is probably the number one question I get asked when planning someone’s Disney vacation! The truth is – there is no right or wrong way to do Disney, and there is no set of standards when it comes to planning YOUR vacation. Everyone is different and everyone vacations different, so the answer is – maybe!

I am going to take you on a tour of our last Disney trip – two weeks ago from January 14-19, 2015. All prices that I’m going through are current for this year, so if you are using this as a guide, as of right now, this is what you can expect! I will tell you that for our family, we do not benefit from the dining plan.

Bear with me as this post contains a lot of math and numbers – good thing I LOVE math and budgeting!

As a reference point, there are three different levels of the Disney Dining Plan. The prices and meals listed below are per person per night. Notice I said night – you only have as many “points” as you do nights, so on check out day it is possible you are paying for any meals out of pocket depending on when you leave! Children under 3 can eat for free at buffets and can share with their parents at other meals for no additional fees. The children’s prices are for children 3-9 and adults start at age 10.

Type

Includes

Price Per Adult

Price Per Child

Quick Service Dining Plan

2 Quick Service Meals

$41.99

$16.03

1 Snack

Plus Dining Plan**

1 Sit Down Meal

$60.09

$19.23

1 Quick Service Meal

1 Snack

Deluxe Dining Plan

3 Meals of Your Choice

$109.53

$29.86

2 Snacks

** For the remainder of this post I will be comparing against the Plus Dining Plan, as it is the most popular option.

So is the dining plan really worth it? Well, can you eat $60.09 of food per night, not including gratuity? We can’t. And the biggest question to ask yourself is what kind of eater are you? This is particularly important because this is a big place we lose money. We love to share an appetizer with our dinners, especially in Disney where the food is so good! These are not included on the Dining Plan so already that is extra money out of pocket. Also. we almost never order dessert, which IS included. So we lose money again as we are wasting food that we aren’t going to eat! Lastly, if you have children under 3 who are not on the dining plan, but you are eating at a non-buffet restaurant and they need their own food, this is also out of pocket! Seriously those little $8.99 meals add up!

Whew! See.. we didn’t skimp on any meals on our trip! Also, the meals that are not buffets, I wrote down what we got to show you that we do NOT order the cheapest thing on the menu. In fact, at Be Our Guest, I ordered the most expensive (and boy was it worth it!!) Also something to keep in mind is buffets are always more expensive than sit downs, especially when they have characters! We did quite a few character meals, so we actually COULD have spent a lot less if we would have picked other restaurants! But, with a 2 year old who thinks she’s a princess – we’re eating with the characters! So the big question is was it worth not doing the dining plan!

For our family – YES! The cost of the dining plan for us would have been $600.90. Now before you go thinking I wrote this big blog post about saving $10.68 that is NOT the case! The Disney Dining Plan does NOT include gratuity, whereas 18% gratuity is included in all of my figures above! Also, an additional $53.97 was spent that would not have been included on the dining plan – Lily’s meals and my soup are an example! So our total savings by not using the dining plan really came out to be $158.75!! To me and my family, that is a lot of money! Heck that is what I spend on groceries for our family for 2 weeks!

Bottom line – the dining plan is great and can really work in your favor if you want it to, but it all comes down to what works best for your family!

If you remember, the last time we went to Disney we stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and it wasn’t as amazing as I hoped it would be. You can check out my review here. This time, we stayed with two other couples in a two-bedroom villa on the Boardwalk.

My initial reaction to this resort is really awesome! It was a great location, especially for the half marathon as it was a short bus ride both ways! The room was amazing. In the villa we had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living area and full kitchen. We slept on the pull out couch and doubled the mattress with the pull out couch from the studio (all two-bedrooms include a lock-out) and it was really comfortable. Our room offered a view of the quiet pool and also was on the path of the marathon, so we could go out and cheer on the runners! We did cook breakfast in our room one morning but if I ever stayed here in a villa again, I would definitely do a lot more cooking here!

Unlike AKL, transportation was really easy at the Boardwalk. We took the boat to Hollywood Studios and walked back, walked over to Epcot and although we didn’t go in, we could watch the fireworks from the bridge! The only times we really had a longer wait was with a bus to Magic Kingdom and Downtown Disney, but even then it wasn’t bad! There was also plenty to do as there are always entertainers on the boardwalk and the resort itself is pretty big! In addition, there is an easy path to the Yacht and Beach Clubs and plenty to do over there as well!

The pool area was nice, and the water slide looked like a ton of fun, but I wasn’t thrilled with it for babies. They don’t have a zero entry pool so getting in and out was not easy and the baby pool was just a circle with a foot or so of water in it (typical for a baby pool) but nothing fancy! There also wasn’t very much seating at the pool unlike at other resorts we have stayed at, but again, it was a nice area! Having a hot tub a few feet off of our balcony was beyond amazing (especially after running, it felt amazing on my knees!)

The biggest downfall for me, and the reason I probably wouldn’t pick to stay there with a baby again is the lack of quick service for dining. There is no quick service dining, there is only what is available on the boardwalk, which is pretty much the fried cart or pizza! It was great the first night but after that it got a little old, especially since we planned a lot of meals of just being at the resort. Also the sit-down places are not all that great but still had crazy waits and no available advanced reservations. If we ever do an adults trip, I would DEFINITELY stay here, especially with all the night life! Jellyroll’s is one of our favorite places in WDW, but not do-able with a baby!

All in all though, I really liked this resort and after we are all done having kids and they are at least 5, we will hopefully stay here again!

It’s my 100th post! And what a great one it is! My journey to my first half marathon and now that I can feel my legs again, it was awesome! RunDisney puts on one heck of a great race and I can imagine that no other race is half as amazing!

I should start out by mentioning my training. Oh, that’s right, I didn’t train. Like, AT ALL! I literally ran 3 miles maybe two or three times leading up to the race. My friends thought for sure I was going to back out. Nope, not here! I used the couch to half marathon approach. Not the really good training program like C25K. Nope, one day I was happy on the couch, the next half marathon finisher. As awesome as it was, I totally do NOT recommend running it without training. Especially if you want to enjoy the rest of your WDW vacation! I was in some serious pain and was pretty much out of commission for the day of the race!

The morning of the race was nice and warm, in the high 60’s, which was amazing, but with 100% humidity, less than amazing! We were at the bus stop at 3:30 a.m. at the Boardwalk resort. I was surprisingly calm and focused without too many nerves. Mainly just anticipation for the unknown. Luckily we only had to wait a few minutes before the bus came to take us to the starting line.

My awesome friend Katie, who was so sick before the race, designed these awesome shirts for us all to wear! It was great having friends to hang out with in the pre-race area. We stretched, looked around, had pictures taken and then started the walk to our corrals! One thing they totally don’t tell you is that you are really moving your body for about 15 miles by the time you even get to the starting line. We took the hike to our corrals and this is the part that I got the most nervous for. All of my friends were in corral P and I was in N. Not sure how that happened, I think it was a miracle. P is the last corral, where the balloon ladies (aka sweepers) are and I was so nervous about being swept! I could have started back with them, but I felt it was safer for my race to start in N and give myself the extra 15 or so minutes.

I am pretty outgoing and friendly, so I made friends with some people in my corral and even found two running buddies, an older couple who seemed to be targeting the pace I was (slow). I also was hanging out with a few locals who were running the Dopey Challenge. Seriously a good name for it, as they were running the 5K Thursday, 10K Friday, Half Saturday and Full Marathon Sunday. They are seriously crazy! Before I knew it (or a few hours later) it was time to start. There at the starting line was my main man, Donald, ready to count it down!

Annnnd we were off! It turns out my older couple friends were much slower than I anticipated I would be, so I ran off ahead! I ran the first mile and it was seriously awful. I thought multiple times that I was just going to be done and that I tried and failed and it’s my own fault because I didn’t train. I turned my headphones up hoping for a miracle when I heard a girl in front of me yell “3-2-1 walk” and her group of 4 started walking. After a minute or so, she yelled “3-2-1 run.” Someone on the other side of me asked what their pace was and the girl said they were walking 60 seconds, running 30. I looked at the girl on the end and said “mind if I pace with you” since I knew that I could do that. And those 4 girls got me through the race.

Turns out they are part of the running club Running Of the Ears (which I am now a member of too!) and Janice, Angie, Ashley and Sarah were amazing to run with. One thing I never thought I would do was to pull out my headphones and run the entire thing (minus 2 miles) with no music. I didn’t need it. We talked, we laughed, we ran, we walked and we enjoyed every magical mile as much as we could!

Sorry for some of the blurry pictures, I was running of course! I ended up running about 6 miles and walking the other 7 which was amazing for my first run and also because Angie was nursing an injury we hung back and walked the last 3 miles (which I was more than thankful for as I was hurting by then!)

The course itself was magical and they do a great job of on course entertainment, from characters to DJs to the spectators. It was great. The downside was that it was very narrow at parts and there were some parts that were so congested you couldn’t run.

I also struggled pretty bad from miles 7-10 coming out of the Magic Kingdom and knowing the rest of the course was highway. But I made it and we had a great time! Lily and Kevin were at the finish line cheering me on as I crossed and I met up with my friends immediately following (they all finished before me!)

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